“Oh, hi. I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name earlier.” Her cheeks pinked as she spoke. “I’m Cassie.”
I wanted to tell her that she was wrong. Her name was Tessa Laurent. And she was my wife.
But I bit all of that back. None of that was helpful right now. I closed the distance between us, holding out my hand.
She took it, and then I could breathe. I could see her—the real her. I smiled for real then, and she was looking everywhere but at me. It reminded me of the time I bumped into her in a bookstore—before everything happened.
That had been a really good day. The best day.
At least this time my smile wasn’t a lie. “I’m Dastien Laurent.”
“Um. Are you not from here?”
“No, I just moved in.” My throat went dry. Was she having memory problems? Was she already forgetting me again? How was I going to do this if she was already forgetting?
She pulled gently on her hand, and I watched her brown eyes as I let her hand slip from my grasp. The magic slid back into place, and there was the average-looking, blue-eyed blonde in front of me again.
Her gaze darted to mine, and I crossed my arms to keep myself from reaching out to her again.
“No. I meant the accent. I didn’t hear it before, but when you said your name…”
“Oh. Right.” Relief hit me so strongly that I had to step back. “I’m originally from France, but I’ve lived in the US for most of my life.”
“Cool.” She hooked her thumbs in her backpack straps. “Well, I’m off to make up a test I missed. I’ll see you—”
This couldn’t be it. Thirty seconds and then gone again. I needed more time. I had to have more time.
“I’ll walk out with you.” The words were out of my mouth before I could think them through. I wasn’t really planning on going anywhere. I’d just been waiting to talk to her. But I had keys and my cell, and I could come up with something if she asked.
The store. I was going to the store.
“Okay,” she said, but it was soft.
I pressed the button for the elevator, and an awkward silence filled the space between us.
This was one thing that had never been between us. It was never awkward. We could sit together quietly, and it never felt like this.
I hated magic, and I was really starting to hate the fey. They thought they could take her from me? They thought they could do this to her? To us?
No. As soon as Tessa was back to herself, the second she was okay again, the fey were going to have a very, very big problem on their hands.
I heard a rumble and looked at her.
Tessa’s eyes were wide, and her hand was over her stomach. “That’s embarrassing.”
I wanted to touch her again so I could get a better look at the real Tessa under the magic, but I didn’t want to risk spooking her. “Did you miss lunch?”
“No. I ate.” She looked away from me and stared at the ground. “I’m just always hungry.” Her words were mumbled, and if I wasn’t mistaken—she was embarrassed.
She didn’t need to be embarrassed, but now she had me worried. I didn’t like that she was always hungry. She was still a werewolf. No matter how much magic they put over her to hide her wolf. If she was trying to eat like a human—and had been that way for twenty-one months—then she could be near starvation.
My heart started to race as I tried to picture how she’d looked under all the magic. This was bad. This could be very, very bad. She might be worse off than Meredith was when her wolf had been suppressed by magic.
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But this wasn’t witchcraft. This was fey magic.
Merde. I’d been so happy to be able to see her, that I hadn’t paid attention. She didn’t seem like she’d lost any weight. I had to look again. I had to know, or I wouldn’t be able to leave her side.